New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-01-23
PRISONERS OF POVERTY.
WOMEN wAGE-wQRKERs. THEIR TRADES
AND THEIR LIVES.
XIV.
XIV.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL


through streets where only imagination can supply
tho Old land marks long ago vanished, there is q
conviction that he knows the city foot by foot as
il has crept northward, and he repudiates the
thought that its growth has ended such possibility
and that many dark corner ii as remote from his
or any knowledge save that of its occupants, as Il
in CaiIre- land. The newest New-Yorker has small
interest in anything but the west side ana the
space downtown occupied by bis store or once
And 80 it chances that in spite of occasional
series of descriptive articles in spite of an eiapo-
rately written local history, and unnnmDerea NOVELS
whose okground lis tie city he ana tnough'
there is little rea. knowledge, and save among
charitable workers, the police, and adventurous
newspaper men, no thought of what life may be
lived not stones throw from the great artery OF
New-York, Broadway
On one point there can be no donbt. Not Africa
IN its most pestilential and savage form holds
surer disease or more determined barbarians than
nest together under many roof within hearing of
The rush and roar of the busy streets where men
come and 60, eager for 10 knowledge or wisdom
uuder the sun save the knowledge that will make
them better bargainers. There comes even q
certain impatient distrust Of those who persist in
upsayory researches and more unsacory details OF
the results If there is not distruSt; if the easy
going kindness that is portion OF the American
temperament is stirred, it is but for the moment,
and when the hand that sought the pocket or
tho check instnctivey aas presented it's gift
interest is over. A fresh sensation wipes ont all
trace of the transient feeling, and though 1T may
xeain be reused by judcious effort, how rarely Is
II that more than the automatic movement toward
The pocket results! What might come If for even
one hour the impatient Cver walked through the
dark passages stood in the foul. dimly lighted
rooms aud saw what manner of creature New-York
n0urishes in her slums. giving to every child In
freest measure that ming in all founess that eye
or ear or mind can take in that will MT 1t In time
for the habitaton prison or reformafory on
which money is never spared,-who shall say They
are filled by free choice. these nests of all evil
The men and women who herd in them know moth
ing better indeed, may have known something
even worse. They are Polish Jews Bohemlans, tho
lowest Italians. contentwith amending work.
the smallest wage, and an order OF food that the
American no matter how low he may be brought.
can never stomach. Yet they assiiniate in one
point, being as bent upon getting on as the most
determined American. and accepting to this end
conditions that seem more those of dn Inferno than
INV thing the upper world has known. 1t Is among
these people chiefly Polish Jews and BohemiaDs
with the inevitable commxture of Irish, that one
finds the worst forms OF child labor; children that
In happy homes are still counted babies here In
these deus beginning at four OF five to sew on
buttons or pick out threads.
II Is not of child-aboI and the outrages involved
in 10 that speak to-day indirectly, az 1t
forms part of the mass of evil making up the
present Industrial system and to be encountered
ct every turn by the most superficial investigator
1t is rather of certain specific conditions found at
many points in tenement-house life, but never in
such accumulated degree Of vileness at any point
H. I'll And fha
reader like various recent correspondents. 10 dis
posed TO believe that am merely making up a
case" using little experience and great deal of
refer him or her TO the forty
annual report Of the New-York Association for the
Improvement of tho Condition Of tho Poor.
There in detail to degree impossible here, will
be found the ocialreport of the inspector appointed
to examine the conditions OF life in the building
known as " The Big Flat" in Mulberry-st There
are smaller houses that are worse IN construction
and condition, but there is none controlled by one
management where so many are gathered under
one roof. The first floor has rooms for fourteen
families; the remaining five for sixteen EACH and
the census Of 1880 gave the number Of inhabitants
as AIS, sufficient number to make up the popula-
ton of tue average village The formal inspection
and the report upon itwere made in September 1886
and the report is now accessible to all who desire
information oil these phases of city life. 1t is Mrs
Maloney herself whose methods best give the
heart of the matter, and who, having several
CallinGs, is the owEer of an experience which
appears to hold as much surprise for herself for
the nearer.
.Shure foind things that interestin' that I'm in
no haste to be through wild EN-, an on for Inc taste
o. Purgatory. rot hintin' that there migntnt be
noren TASTE" Mrs. Maloney sald on day In
which she unfolded to me her views Of life in
general, her small gray eyes twnkling her arms
akim5o on her mighty hips, and her cap-bOrder
Tapping about face weather-beaten and high
colored to q degree not warranted even by her
present profession as appe-woman. Whether
whiskey or stale Deer is most responsible is un-
known. 1t is only certain that, having sub
mit:ed with the utmost cbeerfulness to the
perennial beatngs OF husband only half her size,
she found consolation in glass now and then with
q sympathzing ncighbor and at last In daily
resort to the same frienl There had been a
gradual descent from prosperity. Dennis, If small,
was wiry and phenomenally strong, and earned
steady wages as porter during their first years in
the country. But the children, rs they grew, went
to tho bad entirely, living on the earnings Of the
mother. who washed and scrubbed and shaved, with
heart always full of excuses for the hulking
brutes who came naturally at last to the ends that
might have been foretold. Their education had
been IN the Fourth Ward; they were champion
buIes and ruilians Of whom the ward still boasts,
Mrs. Maloney herself acquiring certain
distinction as tbs mother of the hardest yet
sent up from Cherry-st But if she had no power to
save her own life became easier for whomsoover
sho elected to guard. Wretched children crept
under her wing to escape tue beating awaiting
them when they had failed TO bring home the
amount demanded of them. Women, beaten and
turned out into the light fled to her for comfort
AMI the girl WHO had lost her place OF to whom
worse misfortune had come told her story to the
big hearted sinner who nodded and cried and said
IFS the WILDLY Maloney that IL you're not put
upon more. Hold an be aisy honey. an all III
come ont the way you'd be havin it. an Why not -
1t was at this stage of experience that Mrs.
Maloney decided to remove to the " Big Flat" The
last raid of Dennis the youngest and only boy not